Lifelongbender

4 minutes ago, sutton said:

Both on ice officials were absolutely aware of the chants and again chose to do absolutely nothing.  Mars coaches were all over them.

Officiating in that rink is always suspect in my experience.

Sadly this sort of thing is all too common in that rink. What world do we live in where anybody can think this sort of behavior is acceptable?

I don't know what, if any, provision there is in PIHL rules under which the program could be sanctioned for this, but at the least they should ban spectators for high school hockey entirely in that noxious barn. They only have their own kids, and their own inaction, to thank for it.

They're lucky there wasn't a brawl. I have a female player in my family and it would be hard to sit still for this sort of unfathomable behavior. Great parenting, Armstrong parents. My own kids would never leave the house again if they were involved in something like this.

15 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

Absolutely.  Same reason you can play most teams at 6 am and the parents are great but at 9 pm they are out of control. 

I get that the very expensive organizations have an interest in not messing with the parents, but as for me, we never put up with that kind of behavior from parents. It's something that the coaches should be managing. Drunken misbehavior by the parents at games simply shouldn't be tolerated. But you see it all the time. I've seen parents getting into the faces of opposing players walking off the ice. Disgraceful. 

Most of the rinks block school hockey practice sessions, too. The programs are allowed to ask them to.

I have noticed that it pays to wait for games at Alpha. For games that start between half hours, like 9:10 PM, for instance, it's not at all uncommon for it to still be locked at 9:00 but unlock a minute or two before game time, or even shortly after the game starts. It's frustrating but if you keep trying you'll often get in to watch the games after all.

It's true that when we were kids almost everyone playing hockey had a dad who also played. The growth of the sport in Pittsburgh has made that a thing of the past. That's got some bad aspects to it, but it largely a very good thing. 

Keep in mind that the next generation of players will have the current generation as their parents. The explosive expansion of ice hockey in our region has made that impossible in the short run and inevitable in the long run.

It's amazing to me that people think they don't ever have to be polite in grocery stores, on the internet, or at their kids' sporting events. Three tips for parents:

1. The ref isn't going to give you calls just because you act like a jerk.
2. If you're going to yell at least be right.
3. Your kids HATE it when they can hear you yelling like a fool from the stands. It's embarrassing to them.

13 minutes ago, Eddie Shore said:

November of this year?

That was the plan according to the stuff they put out in the spring.

I can't see it being ready unless they are just putting the final paint coats on the locker rooms right now. I just don't believe this will ever happen. I hope I am wrong.

You know, it has always killed my how many parents can watch their kids play for 10 years and still not understand what hooking actually is. 

Of course, it's possible they do understand and they're just whining...

28 minutes ago, Mitch said:

Haven’t been here in a bit, but this is Brian Mitchell from PHD… saw some posts about our whereabouts and wanted to clear some stuff up..

I usually go crazy from St. Margaret’s through the PIHL finals and then take the summer off, RMU definitely caused some turmoil for us internally as they were what started us out. 

We haven’t ceased to exist, just a tricky time for us. I have three other things going on, I host trivia and dj as well as my regular day job. The Margaret’s tournament and G/S tournament were a perfect storm of scheduling conflicts, so that didn’t pan out for me, and the other two guys are involved in their extracurricular activities that fell in the same situation. Our RMU men’s beat guy has a tricky schedule too, and a feature writer got into a “conflict of interest” situation due to his involvement in the RMU hockey foundation. 

The good news is that the league approached us for broadcasting this year, and starting with the finals of the Greensburg-Salem Tournament and continuing through 12 games in October. We’ll be out, maybe not as often, but we’re doing all we can. Thanks for the concern, though! 

Happy to hear you're still around!

As I have said above, the positions of those who support the rule change are well-reasoned. I don't think this rule change is cataclysmic, but I have the following reasons for disagreeing with it, some of which are good ones and some of which are not as good. In no particular order:

• There is no justification for allowing delayed offsides at the high school level but not allowing amateur players of that age delayed offsides. Let's all play the same game.
• While I agree that highly skilled players can perform a regroup and retain possession of the puck, @GrumpyOldPucker noted that the Russians tortured opponents with their regroups. Even their most skilled opponents couldn't do regroups like the Russians. Just because Makharov and Kharlomov could do this, should we expect all players to be able to? I don't know if I am on board with that. You do different sorts of regroups if Letang and Dumoulin are on the ice than if it's Ruhwedel and Maata.
• Coaches are free to coach their players to regroup in the neutral zone, and in this argument thereby dominate opponents at will, if they like, whether delayed offsides exists or not. I fail to see how removing an option from the game enhances creativity. It just requires everyone to play the game one particular way at all times. If coaches saw a huge advantage to the Russian style regroups, more teams would be playing that style now, even before the rule change. The fact that you don't see it being played that way already tells you something. We can, of course ,debate whether the coaches are correct in their perceptions here, but kids regrouped rather than dump the puck all the way through peewee under the old system because they didn't have delayed offsides, so coaching bantams to do it would have been trivial if a coach saw a way to gain a competitive advantage.
• Games I have watched this season have taken longer, and flowed less well, than they did last season. That may well - probably will - change as teams get used to the new rules.

I'm not saying that hockey is better when players dump the puck rather than trying to do something more possession-oriented in the neutral zone, or even further back. I am saying that removing that option doesn't make the game better in my opinion, because there are isolated and possibly rare situations where dumping a puck makes sense.

Again, maybe most or all of these concerns are going to lessen as players get used to this new rule. Maybe my biggest objection to this change is that touch-up offsides is just how hockey is played in my book, as a lifelong fan. But my first bullet is not going to fade away - if touch up offsides is bad for player development and bad for the game, why permit it at any level, or allow players to do it with their HS teams but not their amateur teams? The rules should be the same for everyone.

Finally, for the record I think that not permitting a team on the PK is not a huge change. Although it can make it harder for the defending team to change (especially in the second period), in the games I have watched this season this rule change hasn't really been an issue. The kids have been aware of the the rule at HS and at amateur and generally acted appropriately. I still believe, though, that the rules should be the same for HS hockey as for amateur.

2 hours ago, Saucey said:

That is a very subjective issue. Whether you have a player or a goalie, privates, to me, depend a lot on your kid and the style of the instructor. Someone may work better with one over another.  Check with your local rink, most have someone that does goalie instruction, there, ask questions of the instructor to see if there is a match. 

Goalie coaches especially are a highly individual choice. You can see that with goalies even at the highest level - NHL goalies frequently have issues when their goalie coach changes for some reason. You really need to take the time and talk to the coaches.

Shane Clifford is a highly regarded goalie coach in the area, but there are others as well.

2 hours ago, Saucey said:

This is straying from the topic a bit, but I find tournaments to be the least useful thing you can do dollar for dollar. I'd rather schedule some independent games and control who you play. They are largely a racket.

I don't disagree with what you said here, except that it's a matter of perspective. Whether a tournament is worth attending is a matter of what your goals are. I have found that going out of town for a tournament is a nice team building thing, and the kids (and the parents) generally have a great time. They're not a great way to find competitive games because they're hit and miss on that, and as we noted, you often end up playing someone you could have played at home.

In other words, you don't go to a tournament as part of building your national bound or AAA resume. That's true. But there are maybe some other good reasons to go to them, for some teams. If my kids were on one of those "AAA" or "AA" teams our area seems to have such an abundance of on paper, I'd agree. They play so many games on those teams that adding a tournament seems silly.

47 minutes ago, RJUSHL said:

Yea that's true. And then you travel to Buffalo or somewhere for a tournament and play all the same PAHL teams again.

Ain't that the truth? My kids have gone to many tournaments, in one case as far as Annapolis, only to face three PAHL teams in a tournament more than once.

There is a committee that meets, but maybe not today, exactly. They look at the results of the games. Most teams will remain where they are, but some teams will be moved either because of the outcomes of their games, or because they appealed and demonstrated through extra games that they do not belong where they were placed. Initial placements are based on a combination of proposed placement (from the organization) and a database of players they keep for reference. Then discussion occurs at the meetings about teams that had unexpected placement game outcomes.

To be honest, I agree with those who have said on this discussion board elsewhere that PAHL generally does a good job on placements. There are always teams that either don't get placed right, or for whom there really wasn't a good place to put them, but by and large the system works as well as it can given the huge number of moving parts.

1 hour ago, Wondering aloud said:

Quick question: When does the regular high school hockey season start and end? And, can you play club hockey and do high school hockey?

Both begin and end in October and, say, late February or early March. Many, if not most, players do both school and amateur.

Amateur games are on weekends, and PIHL games are on weekdays, so it's generally manageable.

9 hours ago, sadday4hockey said:

I don't think it can be referred to as "left" when you are banned from the place of business where the team practices and plays. Why the desire to bury the truth may I ask? Karma finally came calling as it always does.

sigh. No desire to bury the truth at all. If you look back to the discussion we had about this topic when it happened, I'm sure you can discern my opinion on it.

My desire was to avoid this silly discussion, which literally has nothing to do with the St. Margaret Tournament.

3 hours ago, PUCKCOVID19 said:

yes left. no need to bring up the past.....if your aware of what happened fine if not o well 

Right. That has been discussed elsewhere.

On 9/8/2021 at 5:51 PM, BeaverFalls said:

Didn’t they get a new coach?  

Sort of. Mort, the longtime BP coach, left the organization. He was replaced by a longtime BP assistant coach.

11 minutes ago, Jack Handey said:

and Bethel Park falling 8-3.  What is going on?

 

Yeah, what the heck is going on?

The Quest battle camps are a great investment. Both of my kids loved them.

I don't remember a second collapse in the 2010s, no. But stranger things have happened.

Well, that is hilarious on so many levels.

You do have to appreciate their sweaters, though. Always been a fan of their uniforms.

2 hours ago, Corsi said:

I know that some of the people that were giving private lessons in Delmont have been having a hard time getting access to the ice schedules.  In the past the schedules were released at the start of each month, but now it seems like it is only a week or two at a time, which is making it more difficult to get students scheduled.

I have a friend who does some teaching out there who has had issues with both the rising cost of ice and the ice schedule issue. I think this is entirely correct.

1 hour ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Don't they already have the former Iceoplex at Southpointe? Or is there another rink in the South Hills you're referring to?

I'm just riffing here, but Black Bear could be the best thing that ever happened to Rostraver.

I'm not saying anyone is talking about that. I am saying they should be.

1 minute ago, Saucey said:

It was explained to me as an update to language only. Body contact and checking were being used interchangeably. So now body contact is competitive contact. Competitive contact should happen at all levels, checking at 14u up.

You know, this all sounds dangerously like USA Hockey moving in the right direction for once. I'm not sure how to process this.

8 hours ago, carroll81 said:

It was put in to clarify what they tried to eliminate in the last go around.

Two guys battling in the corner, third guys comes in and checks the opponent off the puck - Penalty.

Two guys battling in the corner, third guys comes makes a play on the puck (can use body positioning)  - No Penalty.

 

They also clarified the body contact while two players are chasing the puck.  Just because there is contact prior to getting to the puck does not mean there is a penalty, even if one player ends up on the ice.  As long as it's a battle for position, no penalty.

Nothing here is really new since the previous rulebook, at least in terms of how they want it called.

Yes, @carroll81 and @Not Gam, that's exactly how they were calling it back a few years ago. I wasn't very precise with my language.